Sweden bans experiments
on great apes and gibbons

According to a press release from Animal Rights Sweden (see original text below),
Sweden's Board of Agriculture and National Board for Laboratory Animals has recently
issued new regulations banning experimental research on great apes and gibbons. According
to the press release, Swedish researchers will still be permitted to use apes in
non-invasive behavioral studies.

Because no experimental research on apes is currently being conducted in Sweden,
the ban may not have any noticeable effects. According to Per-Anders Svärd of
Animal Rights Sweden, however, the ban is considered to be of great importance, as
it represents a first step towards the recognition of the moral and legal rights
of animals suffering in experiments.Effective in June, the new legislation
marks an ideological victory for the animal rights organization.

Similar regulations outlawing experimental reseaarch
on apes already exist in Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

The legitimacy of using other animals stands unchallenged. This author finds it positively
surprising, however, that - for once - gibbons are actually recognised as being apes
and are included in the new regulation.

Sweden's Board of Agriculture together with Sweden's National Board for Laboratory
Animals recently decided on new regulations for using animals in research. One of
the most important changes is that great apes and nine species of Gibbon apes will
be exempt from use in experiments from June this year. Only non-invasive behavioural
studies of these animals will be allowed in the future.

"No great apes or gibbon apes are currently used in experiments in Sweden, but
the ban is still a matter of great ideological importance," says Per-Anders
Svärd, Campaign Manager at Animal Rights Sweden, the country's largest animal
rights organization. "The decision marks an important shift in official policy,
since it implicitly recognizes the individual moral worth of primates. Hopefully,
the ban can be seen as a first step towards extending moral and legal rights to millions
of other animals suffering in experiments."

Animal rights organizations all over the world have been campaigning to end primate
experiments for several years. The Swedish ban will undoubtedly generate hope and
enthusiasm within the international community of activists struggling to end primate
experimentation in their respective countries.

"By raising public awareness through persistent campaigns, activists have been
able to push back long-standing prejudice surrounding the moral standing of primates.
There are no excuses for using primates in experiments, and this is finally beginning
to sink in - even at the level of policy-making," concludes Per-Anders Svärd.

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